The Bungalow Boys Along the Yukon

This done, they began stepping out with the utmost delicacy. They did not dare to light a match, as this would have undoubtedly awakened the men who appeared to be restless sleepers. So they had to proceed in the dark. It was ticklish work. One false step and the men would be upon them. They stepped out like cats on ice, raising each foot high in the air as it was advanced.

Tom reached the entrance of the cavern in safety without having aroused either of the sleepers. Jack was not so lucky. His foot encountered Ingalls's body and the man muttered something in his sleep. For one dreadful instant Jack thought that the man was awake. His heart stood still and he fingered his rifle nervously.

But a minute later he knew that it had been a false alarm and speedily thereafter he joined his brother at the cave mouth. Silhouetted against the dark sky was the form of Rufus. Both boys' hearts gave a glad bound at the sight of him.

The negro said nothing, but wiggled his hand in front of his face as though to signify that he was glad to see them. Then beckoning to them mysteriously, he asked the entirely superfluous question:

"Am yo' hyah?"

Equally unnecessarily Tom made his response.

"We are both here, as you can see, Rufus."

"Gollyumption, ain't it as dark as de ten plagues ob Egyup? But dat am a good ting fo' yo' alls. De darker de better till yo' gits clar away."

"That's so. Well, here's your money, Rufus, and thank you. But how about tying you?"

"Gracious, ah plum forgot dat part ob de business! Hyah! Take dis rope and lace me up good an' tight. Don' min' mah feelin's. Ah'm durable."

The negro was trussed up hand and foot by the boys, who then pressed his hand, and with more murmured thanks to him they slipped away into the darkness. They had a general idea of the lay of the land and made off as fast as they could in the direction that Tom judged was the correct one. As they went, their hearts were filled with genuine thankfulness toward the black-skinned friend who had helped them out of a bad dilemma.

And now, as we shall not see Rufus or his masters again, we may as well take this opportunity of detailing their future careers.

Following the discovery that the boys had gone, leaving Rufus tied and gagged, the fury of the two men knew no bounds. Had they discovered the boys then, there is no question but they would have killed them. But although they ranged the woods they did not discover any trace of the two lads, and being eager to get back to their crazy task of undermining the mountain, they soon gave up the search.

They were hastened in this by their insane fears that the boys would communicate the secret of their camp to outsiders, and that a horde of gold-seekers would swoop down on Dead Man's Mine and rob them of their so-called rightful gains. Rufus had acted his part perfectly, and not for an instant did they suspect him. His groans and moans and imprecations upon the heads of the runaways left no room to doubt that he was even more affected by their escape than his masters.

"De scan'lous willians des crep' up behin' me and caught me de worses' wallop ober de ear dat you eber felt," he said. "Den dey knock me down an' tie me up de way yo' fin' me. Which way did dey go? Why, dat 'a way." And Rufus pointed in exactly the contrary direction to that in which the young runaways had gone.

Deeming it a useless task to carry the pursuit any further, the two men, as has been said, resumed their disordered operations on the mine. Day by day their insanity became more and more marked, till finally they hardly gave themselves time to eat or sleep in the belief that the boys would soon be back with a party of men to steal the mine.

They worked all day and finally all night, sleeping a few winks in the mine itself and having Rufus bring them scanty mouthfuls of food. It was a true tragedy of the far north that now began to draw toward a close.

Rufus pleaded with the two men, for whom he really cherished an affection, to listen to reason, but they were too far gone for that. Their every thought now was centered on the gold, which they were certain was close at hand. In the strength of their delirium they actually undermined a great part of the conical hill, a task that would have been thought almost impossible.

Then one morning the end came. Rufus went to the pit to beg the men, who had been working for twenty hours on a stretch, to leave off for a time and get a little rest. He found them lying in the excavation side by side, each with a shovel in his hand, just as he had dropped. Rufus gave them as fitting a burial as he could, and then, as many a man has done before, he uttered a deep curse against gold, the love of which was the infernal cause of all the trouble. Then making up his few possessions into a bundle, he made his way out to the settlements with his strange story. And so ended two careers which might have been useful and dignified had it not been for the lure of gold that ensnares so many men and breaks so many promising lives. Jim Stapleton and Seth Ingalls were not the first men to yield up their lives at the behest of the demon of gold-seeking, and the most pathetic part of their story is that it is exactly true as related in this volume. The author heard it while in the Yukon some years ago, along with many other tales of the same sort.

As for the boys, they endured many hardships and not a few perils on their way back to the Yukon Rover. But in due course, thin, half-famished and footsore they reached the craft. With what a warm welcome they were received may be readily imagined. They found Mr. Dacre quite recovered and Sandy as chipper as ever.

The days that ensued were filled with hunting, fishing and long tramps along the trap-line, till every one of the lads was muscled like an athlete and brown as a berry.

One late August morning the first breath of the northern winter came down upon them. The boys hailed it with delight, for they knew then that the real business of their strange voyage on the Yukon was about to begin. With winter would come the trapping season and the long-awaited silver foxes. The boys looked forward eagerly to the time when they could glide with snowshoes through the frozen woods on their visits to the traps.

But they little knew what the winter held in store for them. It was not to be all sport and jollity. When the iron hand of the frost king closes on the far northland, the time has arrived when men and boys are tried on no common anvil to see of what metal they be. Ahead of the lads lay many strange experiences and perils in the frozen wilds. Those who care to read of their adventurous winter in the Yukon country may do so in the next volume of this series, entitled The Bungalow Boys "North of Fifty-three."

THE END